February 26, 2014 — Transitional aid to shoreside business and fishing crews, specific uses for Saltonstall-Kennedy Act money, and federal money to hire idled fishing boats to serve as research vessels.
These are just a few of the proposals included in a preliminary draft of a sweeping city-led plan to revitalize the recovery of Gloucester’s port and revitalize its groundfishing industry.
The 16-page document — issued under the letterhead of the office of Mayor Carolyn Kirk, but a product of port “stakeholders” from the city and state governments to NOAA and fishery advocates like the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association — also calls for a collaborative review of fisheries management and establishing economic and ecological stability plans for fisheries.
The full document was outlined by several of those stakeholder representatives Monday in a meeting at the Times that included Kirk, Allison Ferreira of NOAA, state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, state Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, city Harbor Planning Director Sarah Garcia, city Fishing Commission Chairman Mark Ring, and Angela Sanfilippo, who heads the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association and Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund.
The document, which all parties emphasized remains a work in progress, was developed through a $75,000 state grant secured by Tarr and backed up by Ferrante to chart Gloucester’s port recovery response to the recognized economic disaster and ongoing economic and ecological failures within the commercial fishing industry.
The purpose of crafting such an ambitious Gloucester port revitalization plan is simple.
“Unless it’s in a plan, you don’t get funding (for any such proposals),” Kirk said.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times